Participatory rapid co-design for transformative resource governance research in the Gulf of Guinea

• Transformative resource governance is a process, rather than an end, and emerges from productive engagement between governments and local communities.
• Social scientists can engender transformative resource governance but only the government and communities can make the informed choices to make it emerge.
• The co-design experience derived from this research is Participatory Rapid Co-design (PaRaC).
• There are many approaches to co-design to allow for flexibility and the emergence of new and innovative ideas by stakeholder at any period of the process.

Weak governance institutions are one of the leading causes of resource challenge in the Gulf of Guinea. The literature has overwhelmingly focused on incremental adjustments in institutions and resource management practices as possible solutions. This article calls for a transformative approach. It uses data from case studies from four Gulf of Guinea countries to present a framework for creating transformative change through resource governance. The particular focus of this article is the co-design phase. It discusses a participatory and rapid co-design approach which was used to explore pathways for achieving transformative resource governance. One of its conclusions is that transformative resource governance is a process, rather than an end, and emerges from productive engagement between governments and local communities.